Bob overworks me so I don't have time to read TCLUG mail much anymore. ;> sorry about the slow reply to this. > Carl can jump in here, but from the presentation on the S390 it seems like there > is going to be a web(?) interface to the 390 so you just point-n-click. from what I heard, middle of last year; IBM's Virtual Image Facility for Linux (VIF) will be an idiot-administerable, crippled version of the VM operating system. it'll be administered through a linux virtual machine running a web interface. (sounds a bit reminiscent of the NetMax line of products). the main advantage of VIF over VM will be cost; it's only a one-time fee of $20,000 instead of $12,000/yr*(some factor involving processor power or number of processors). (those figures are highly approximate so don't sue me if I'm wrong). VIF doesn't give you all the capabilities of VM; like being able to stop virtual machines, examine or modify the live registers in them, then start them off again; or other advanced debugging and accounting features. However, it's cheap and cheerful; which have historically been good sellers; it just remains to be seen if it's cheap and cheerful *enough*. still, if Real-Time gets one of these things; I'm going to be first in line to learn how to hack on it (of course, Bob will be zeroth in line... RHIP). :) Carl Soderstrom. -- Network Engineer Real-Time Enterprises (952) 943-8700